


brothers, sisters, and siblings, oh my!

by gilestel



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Background Threepio, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23960878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilestel/pseuds/gilestel
Summary: Padmé was two sentences in to her third (or was it fourth?) polite but firm rejection of Senator Shin-tek's proposal when a heart-wrenching wail split the air.Four-year-old Leia follows the facts and comes to an inevitable conclusion.
Relationships: Padmé Amidala & Leia Organa, Padmé Amidala & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 20
Kudos: 163





	brothers, sisters, and siblings, oh my!

**Author's Note:**

> order 66? I Don't Know Her.

Padmé frowned as the latest missive from Senator Ky Shin-tek's office popped up on her screen. The senator's aides had been cozying up to her non-stop ever since she had taken over as head of the Appropriations Committee. She hadn't been surprised, exactly, by the number of grifters who had appeared out of the woodwork, even if she couldn't help but be disappointed; the rumors of her predecessor's corruption had been one of the reasons she'd accepted the job, despite preferring to serve on committees that...saw a little more action.

That wasn't the only reason, though. She spared a quick glance towards the twins' playroom. The door was slightly ajar, the warm yellow light diffusing out from behind it reminiscent of Naboo's bright morning sun, not the cold blue star Padmé knew was currently illuminating Coruscant's skies. She could hear Threepio's mechanical tones warbling through the crack, and the occasional joyous shriek from one of the twins.

The Appropriations Committee might have been mostly paperwork and long, nit-picking negotiations, but it was paperwork and negotiating that could be done on Coruscant, and chairing the committee was one of the most important roles in the Senate. 

Anakin was taking a rare trip to cause some trouble with Obi-Wan. Padmé felt guilty, sometimes, that he had been forced to sacrifice so much for their relationship while she had largely been able to salvage her career. If anything, revealing that she had secretly married and conceived children with the famous Hero With No Fear had bolstered her political popularity. She knew that he absolutely adored being able to stay home with the twins while she oversaw budget hearings in the Senate, but he also sometimes craved a rush of adrenaline and danger that was impossible to achieve while caring for two toddlers. Every so often he would start to feel trapped. His mood would darken, and he would pace the room like a caged wild tooka-cat. When this happened, Padmé would quietly reschedule a day's worth of meetings, download a legion of spreadsheets onto her holopad, and send a discreet message to Obi-Wan.

She wished that she could spend these days alone with Luke and Leia, who seemed to age before her eyes every time she left the Senate Building. She was jealous, sometimes of how much time Anakin got to spend with them, and how easy it was for him to immerse himself in their games of make-believe. Her self-imposed Senate uniform prevented her from joining them on the floor before she left for her office in the mornings, and her meetings often stretched so late into the evenings they were already in bed by the time she got home, Anakin waiting for her on the couch or tinkering with some machinery at the kitchen table, uncharacteristically quiet. But she told herself that this was what she had to do, now that she was carrying the weight of  _ both _ their ambitions. 

She was two sentences in to her third (or was it fourth?) polite but firm rejection of Senator Shin-tek's proposal when a heart-wrenching wail split the air. Leia. Padmé immediately shoved aside her holopad and rushed towards the playroom where Threepio was already tottering out of the door in distress. Her mind raged with every possible disaster scenario—had she been wrong to leave the twins with the droid? He had watched them before without issue and Anakin had laughed when she'd expressed concern. It was only supposed to be for a few hours until Ahsoka finished her shift at the hangar—!

"Mistress Padmé! I have absolutely no idea what has distressed Young Mistress Leia so!" exclaimed Threepio, sounding harried.

"It's alright, Threepio," Padmé said distractedly, waving him off as she pushed past him into the playroom. "I'll handle it."

She crouched down on the carpet next to where Leia was sprawled, tears streaming down her face. Luke was wobbily standing next to his sister, his face a picture of four-year-old concern. 

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Padmé asked gently, softly gathering Leia into her arms. She had dressed casually today, and she was grateful for it as she made herself comfortable on the floor. One hand cradled Leia's head and the other reached out to comfort Luke. Poor thing. He clearly hated to see his sister so upset. Leia sniffled and buried her head in her mother's neck.

"Luke, did your sister get hurt?" Padmé asked, trying to get a glimpse at Leia's snotty face to see if there were any cuts or bruises on her forehead. Luke shook his head no, blue eyes wide.

"Leia, honey," Padmé said, keeping her voice calm and soothing despite the panic she was trying to fight down, "use your words to tell me what happened."

Leia took a couple of big, gulping breaths and slowly poked her face out from where it had been buried on Padmé's collarbones. "I don't look right!" she said in a tiny voice. Padmé felt her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Where would she have gotten that idea?

"Why would you say that, honey?" she said, unsure what to expect.

"Because Luke's my brother," Leia replied. Padmé could feel the tension in her little body start to build again.

"But why would you think that means that you don't look right?" Padmé asked.

"Because Uncle Rex has lots of brothers and they all look alike!" Leia's voice increased in volume and tears started to well back up in the corners of her eyes. "If Luke's my brother, why don't I look like him!" 

"Deedee from the playground said that if we were really twins we would look the same," Luke added hesitantly, looking like he was beginning to share his sister's concern. This sparked a renewed round of sobs from Leia.

Padmé had to draw on her years of experience as Queen Amidala to keep a straight face. She felt warmth suffuse her heart as her children, her wonderful perfect children, worked themselves up into hysterics over something so endearing, but also made a mental note to ask Anakin about this "Deedee" when he returned.

"Leia, dear, there's no need to worry," Padmé said, allowing a little bit of her smile creep its way into her voice. "Not everyone looks exactly the same as their sibling. You remember meeting Aunt Sola, right? She's my sibling, and we don't look the same."

"But she's your  _ sister _ ," Leia explained. "Sisters don't look the same."

" _ You're _ Luke's sister," Padmé countered. "Right, Luke?" She looked to her son for confirmation. Luke nodded emphatically.

"So if sisters don't look the same, why should you look the same as Luke?"

Leia frowned. This argument seemed to have stumped her four-year-old logic. 

"See?" Padmé said. "Uncle Rex is special. He has lots and lots of brothers and they all look alike. But not all families are like that. Most families are like me and Sola, where we only look a little bit alike, or like you and Luke, where you look more like your mom and dad than like each other. And some families don't look anything alike. What about Auntie Ahsoka? She's part of our family, but she doesn't look like you or me or Luke  _ or  _ Daddy. Okay?"

Leia nodded, sniffling a bit. 

"Okay."

Padmé turned to Luke. "You okay too, sweetheart?"

Luke nodded, too.

Padmé glanced around at the floor of the playroom, and for the first time noticed the scattered clonetrooper figurines that Anakin had bought half-jokingly on a whim long before the twins were old enough to play with them. She hadn't realized they'd finally made their way into the toybox.

"Let's clean up a bit, and then we'll go get some ice cream."

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in about 2 hours and it is now 2:30 am. goodnight.


End file.
